Species textThere are scattered records for southern Britain, but is a rare and declined bee with post-1970 records for only about a dozen widely scattered sites (Falk, 1991b). Stelis ornatula is a cleptoparasite of the bee Hoplitis claviventris, itself an Essex Red Data book species considered Vulnerable in the county. S. ornatula has been reared on numerous occasions from the bramble, rose and ragwort stem-nests of the host. References